The internet was founded in the twentieth century, in 1969. With nearly 50 years of existence and the positive impact it has had on our everyday lives, it nevertheless poses a plethora of threats.
Every day, we hear stories about significant online data breaches, hacking, bank fraud, and identity theft, among other things. For their own safety, these are just a handful of the reasons why individuals contemplate deleting their online identities. Nobody wants to fall victim to these fraudsters and hackers.
If you’ve chosen to remove yourself from the internet, follow these steps:
- Deactivate your social media profiles
To begin with, social media sites are where the majority of your personal information is housed. When you sign up for social networking networks, you are often expected to input personal information such as your name, date of birth, location, and origin.
If you want to be completely removed from the internet, you must erase this sensitive information from these accounts.
Not only well-known social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn should be monitored. Other sites, such as Reddit, Pinterest, and Flickr, should also be examined.
On these sites, you may follow the processes for permanently removing accounts; practically all of them allow for account cancellation. If the option to delete your account is not available, you may try deactivating or replacing your data with fictitious information.
- Delete any further online accounts
Apart from social media accounts, there are other online venues to which you may have subscribed and provided personal information. This includes e-commerce sites such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, as well as video streaming services such as Twitch and Netflix.
Knowing which internet accounts you have ahead of time will be quite beneficial, since it will be tough to discover all of your online accounts.
Certain of these internet accounts are not deleteable or disableable. The best you can do is keep your account private, preventing others from accessing it.
Additionally, you may conceal any previous account activity, such as the reviews you’ve written. In an ideal world, you’d be able to modify your profile, delete your information, and replace it with bogus ones.
- Remove your website/blog from the internet
If you maintain a website or blog, you’ll want to ensure that your blog is completely defunct before attempting to wipe yourself off the internet. The majority of bloggers and website owners use premium web hosting services.
During registration, personal information is input and transmitted to the WHOIS database.
After deactivating your blog or website, you must guarantee that your data is deleted from your hosting provider’s servers. You may just contact them and request that your account be deleted.
Additionally, you may wish to check out other websites that have featured or shared your blog content. Make contact with them and urge them to take it down. If you want the post to remain on the site, you may simply request that your name and gravatar be removed.
- Delete your Google account
Google is the most frequently used search engine, which is why it gets cited. A person may quickly locate you online by doing a Google search for your name. As a result, you must de-register from Google.
Google allows you to contact them directly and request that your personal information be deleted. You may do so by filling out an online form; if accepted, you will be removed from search results.
There are websites operated by data brokers that collect information about you without your permission. While knowing them all and contacting them to get your data erased may be tough, removing yourself from Google will prevent them from showing up in search results.
- Enlist the assistance of a professional
Deleting oneself from the internet may seem like a daunting undertaking. This is particularly true if your information is available on hundreds of websites. It will not be as simple as eliminating them all individually.
You may make use of professional services provided by businesses. These firms charge a fee to clean up your web profile. They have the ability to delete your information from data broker websites and other websites that you are unaware of.
There are several such businesses online, and you need to exercise caution in selecting a reputable one to avoid wasting money. Look for those with good evaluations: Deseat.me and DeleteMe are the two that come highly recommended.
- Make use of a virtual private network (VPN).
It’s quite impossible to avoid the internet. Even after you’ve deleted your account, you may need to use the internet for a variety of reasons. To avoid giving yourself up again, you must use NordVPN.
With NordVPN, you can browse the internet safely and anonymously. Your online actions are traced when you are connected to the internet through your IP address. The VPN service masks your IP address and enables you to surf anonymously.
This ensures that no one, not even your ISP, the websites you visit, or NordVPN itself, can monitor your online activity. Additionally, the VPN employs powerful encryption technology to encrypt your online traffic, making it impenetrable to hackers.
Conclusion
When it comes to completely erasing oneself from the internet, there is only so much you can do. Practically speaking, it is difficult to completely wipe oneself from the internet, leaving no trace of you online.
However, by following the methods outlined above, you may erase the information that matters and dramatically diminish your online footprint. Before you begin, ensure that you really want to delete yourself from the internet; it is very hard to reverse these acts.